Evidence of meeting #11 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was businesses.
A recording is available from Parliament.
October 31st, 2011 / 4:05 p.m.
Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.
I'll start by thanking you for the question and for your interest in the product.
I'll back up to say that a lot of the technology behind Google Wallet is developed in Kitchener, Ontario.
4:10 p.m.
Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.
We have a significant R and D facility and some of the best computer scientists in the world working there. So even though it has not launched in Canada, it's made partially in Canada.
You'll also be happy to know that in Sudbury, roughly 340 businesses have signed up for the Get Your Business Online program and 49 have published. So those are 49 businesses that weren't online, but I know you had a specific question.
4:10 p.m.
Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.
The answer to the specific question is that I don't know when we're launching in Canada. I'm hoping it will be soon, and I'm advocating internally that we launch in Canada soon.
Fundamentally Google Wallet is a technology that allows you to store your credit card details on your phone, so that if you have a properly enabled phone with what's called a near field communication chip, or NFC, and you go to a register at a store, you can tap your phone and enter your PIN and pay for goods that way, rather than swiping or entering or tapping your card on the same card reader.
The technology currently used to make the communication is roughly the same technology that MasterCard uses in its PayPass infrastructure. So it's not something that is layered on top of existing hardware for retailers, for example.
What's interesting about the technology on the phone itself is that in some ways it's actually more secure having a digital wallet than a leather wallet, because there's a secure element on the phone, a physical chip separate from all of the other hardware of the chip, which stores in a secure and encrypted manner the credentials relevant for processing the payment. If that chip is tampered with at all, it loses all of the data associated with it.
That's the Reader's Digest or Coles Notes version.
4:10 p.m.
NDP
Glenn Thibeault NDP Sudbury, ON
That works. Those were some of the specifics I was looking for in relation to Google.
4:10 p.m.
NDP
Glenn Thibeault NDP Sudbury, ON
It's great to hear that more Sudbury businesses are getting online. My colleagues and I tip our hat to Google and to anyone who can provide that service to help those small- and medium-size enterprises get on the Internet.
I liked your analogy, though I was taking it a little differently. It's the best of times; it's the worst of times, or the not-so-great times.
We're seeing technology grow very quickly, and it's making our lives simpler, and that's fantastic. But with that simplicity comes more complexity in the technology going into making mobile payments, the technology going into e-commerce. I think part of this study looks at what we are going to do to ensure that we protect consumers and retailers. A little warning flag goes up that says that we know, for example, that credit card costs and the merchant fees associated with them for small- and medium-size businesses are detrimental in some instances. We've heard through other studies that the credit card merchant fees are affecting how they can move forward.
Are there costs associated with using Google Wallet, because I'm sure Google isn't getting into Google Wallet to...? Even though you're darn good corporate citizens, you still have to make a profit. We get that.
Are there costs there, and are those costs going to be passed on to the consumer or the retailer?
4:10 p.m.
Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.
There are no costs to consumers for making transactions with Google Wallet; there are no costs to retailers for using it; and there's no charge to credit card companies for using it.
You're asking about the reason Google is in this business. You're saying, “Show me the money”, as the kids say—though maybe they don't any more. I don't know.
4:10 p.m.
NDP
Glenn Thibeault NDP Sudbury, ON
We're dating ourselves, but that's okay. But I was with you: I'm thinking, that's right on.
4:10 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
4:10 p.m.
Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.
For Google that answer is that this is part of a broader commerce strategy. It's to encourage consumers to be out there using their mobile devices, using Google's local offers business. It's not been launched in Canada, but in the U.S. Google has a local offers business that will be tied to the Wallet, such as Groupon. You can imagine that for us there is a constellation of products and services that we think we'll do very well on—and we don't have to charge transaction fees on top of that.
4:15 p.m.
NDP
Glenn Thibeault NDP Sudbury, ON
Perfect. Thank you.
I'll go to Mr. Maduri with Xplornet.
Sudbury, Ontario, is a thriving city, a fantastic place. But you drive 20 minutes outside of there, and it's very difficult to get any type of cell service, and broadband is just non-existent. We have dial-up in many places for small businesses and homes.
What do I tell those folks who are part of the 1% who aren't getting the 3G or the 4G service, who want to stay where they are but are starting to worry that they're being forgotten?
4:15 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Xplornet
First of all, it's not 1%. Again, by CRTC's statistics, the percentage of Canadian households and businesses who will need wireless and satellite to get broadband or high-speed Internet is probably closer to 15%.
Second, it's about wireless. It's about satellite. The technology is coming. In fact, if you have names, I'll take them: they'll be sales calls for me, because we will be launching our 4G satellite commencing at the end of the year.
So there are--
4:15 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
4:15 p.m.
NDP
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
